


Murders, Mysteries, and Mayhem

by dreamiflame



Series: I Need Answers [3]
Category: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-17 23:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7289719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamiflame/pseuds/dreamiflame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Padmé rejects the idea that she needs to hide for her own safety, and goes along on Obi-Wan's investigation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Murders, Mysteries, and Mayhem

**Author's Note:**

  * For [songstress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/songstress/gifts).



> Thanks to my beta for helping make this a better story.

Maybe, if Padmé hadn’t just lost another friend, and if she was still the naïve Queen who had met him before, Padmé would have listened to Palpatine this time. But Cordé was dead, and Sabé still looked as though her heart had been burned out in that explosion.

And Padmé hadn’t trusted Palpatine in years.

Padmé made a show of packing, dealt with Anakin’s inept attempts at flirting, and switched clothes with Sabé in the closet. Sabé went out and finished their work, then let Anakin and Dormé escort her to the spaceport.

Sticking to the shadows with her hood up, Padmé watched the goodbyes, then followed Obi-Wan as he left the spaceport. He moved fast enough that she had to hurry to keep him in sight, and once he blended onto a pedestrian way, she lost him. 

“Blast,” she muttered, and darted forward, trying to catch a glimpse of him. Then a hand closed over her elbow and Padmé found herself face to face with her quarry.

The look on Obi-Wan’s face was priceless. “Padmé?” he asked, then shut his eyes. “Sabé. Of course. I thought she looked a little different, but I figured you were concerned over the trip.”

“I’m coming with you,” Padmé told him, and he let go of her arm. “I’m not going to go hide away somewhere while people are trying to kill me and succeeding in killing my friends.”

“You’ve never been very good at staying where you’d be safest, no,” Obi-Wan agreed, and Padmé felt an answering smile lift the corners of her mouth. “Fine, you can come with me to Dex’s, but we’ll have to see about after.”

They fell into step, Obi-Wan taking shorter strides to let her keep up. Padmé fought the urge to walk faster just to prove she could- she wasn’t a child anymore, and this was no time for games. “What’s Dex’s?”

“A diner.” Obi-Wan slanted a look at her. “It’s not that far from here, in CoCo Town. I doubt you’ve been anywhere like it.”

“Then I look forward to the experience,” Padmé said, and smiled again at him when he laughed.

Dex turned out to be a Besalisk who smelled of cooking grease and hugged Obi-Wan with three huge arms before sitting down with them. Padmé was glad she’d opted to sit beside Obi-Wan, rather than across from him- Dex filled that side of the booth all by himself. “You brought a date at last?” Dex asked, and Obi-Wan chuckled.

“Just a friend. We’re looking for some information on this.” He produced the dart that Anakin had mentioned, and Padmé looked at it curiously before Dex took it to do the same, more closely.

They left the diner with more questions: why were the cloners on Kamino trying to kill her? And just where was Kamino anyway? Obi-Wan turned his head to look at her, and Padmé focused on keeping up. “I need to go to the Archives,” he said, and Padmé could feel the rest of the sentence coming. “I’m afraid you can’t come. They only allow non Jedi under very special circumstances.”

Padmé gave a brisk nod. “I’ll get the ship ready,” she said, and pretended not to see when Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow at her. “Docking bay 2004, level 3.”

“I thought your ship was damaged in the explosion,” he said, carefully neutral, but Padmé found herself wincing anyway. Oh, Cordé, she thought. Oh, my dear friend. Oh, Sabé, your poor shattered heart.

“That’s not the only ship I have,” Padmé said, ruthlessly squashing down her sorrow. She didn’t have time to wallow in grief, and Cordé would never have wanted her to. “And before you say anything, it’s not a Nubian. Much more low profile.”

Obi-Wan ran his hand down her arm and gave her fingers a quick squeeze, then released her. “I’ll see you there once I know where we’re going,” he said, and they parted ways at the shuttles.

*

Padmé let herself onto the ship, and locked the ramp behind her. Normally, this was Sabé’s ship for the covert missions she sometimes ran, but Padmé knew it would be perfect for the trip to find answers. She checked the supplies on board, started the preflight warm up, and sat in the pilot’s chair to wait.

After several hours, Padmé set the ship on standby and went to lie down. The beeping of her commlink woke her, and she fumbled it on, groggy. “Yes?”

“I’m here,” Obi-Wan said. “I see what you mean by more discreet. Are you sure this hulk can fly?”

Padmé swallowed a laugh and rubbed her hand across her face. “I want to be there when you say that to Sabé. If you’re lucky, she’ll only scratch your eyes out.” She tossed aside the light blanket she’d been napping under, and went to let Obi-Wan in.

He looked around once inside, and turned to her with a frown. “I was mostly joking, but now I truly am concerned. It _does_ fly, right?”

“You’ve become picky in your old age, Master Jedi,” Padmé said, and led the way to the cockpit. “Are we ready to go?”

Obi-Wan nodded and patted the astromech droid that had followed him in. “R4 has the coordinates the planet should be at, though the record of it has been erased from the Archives.” The droid plugged itself into the jack by the nav computer, and Obi-Wan frowned as he sat in the co-pilot’s seat and strapped in. “It’s very odd. No one but a Jedi could have changed the records, and why would a Jedi do that?”

Padmé had no answers for him, but she doubted he was expecting any. “It’s pretty far from here. I hope you brought a book.” I wish I’d brought a book, she thought, and took them into space.

* 

“There it is, Padmé,” Obi-Wan said, as they dropped out of hyperspace. “Right where it should be.”

Kamino appeared at first glance to be entirely made of water. Padmé glanced over at Obi-Wan as they started to descend. “Where are we supposed to land?”

He focused on the scanners, trying to find them some dry ground, and Padmé focused on flying. It got worse, as they descended into the atmosphere: not only was the planet covered in oceans, it was raining. Hard, steady rain, that made the viewports useless and kept the planet in darkness, even though they’d come in on the light side.

Obi-Wan squeezed her shoulder and Padmé glanced over to the scanners. He’d found something, floating on the water. A station of some kind, or perhaps an island, completely built over. Padmé keyed in the coordinates and commed ahead for landing permission.

They were directed to a small platform on one end of the structure, and Padmé landed carefully, hearing the rain pound even harder on the outside of the ship. Obi-Wan pulled his hood up as he stood. “Sure you don’t want to stay in here? At least it’s dry.”

“If you think we’ll find answers here, I’m coming with you,” she said, and grabbed a hooded cloak of her own. All of Sabé’s clothes on the ship were fairly simple jumpsuits, so she’d picked one out in green and braided her hair down her back. Obi-Wan waited for her at the ramp, and they hurried across the landing platform, heading for a glass front door.

A tall, thin necked alien with pale skin and white on black eyes waited for them there. “Master Jedi,” she said, and she had a lovely, musical voice Padmé wanted to listen to for ages. “We’ve been expecting you. And your companion is most welcome, of course.”

Obi-Wan looked surprised, but he hid it fairly well, bluffing his way through the meeting with the prime minister and the inspection of the troops. Padmé stayed quiet and tried not to let her horror show on her face, but this was an army. An army she had been fighting for over two years to prevent from ever existing, and someone had gotten it started ten years ago.

Just after the invasion of Naboo. Or just before. There was so much here that didn’t add up. Obi-Wan seemed disturbed as well, but the Kaminoans didn’t seem to notice their emotions much. “I’d like to meet this Jango Fett,” Obi-Wan said, and shot Padmé a look. He didn’t want her to join him, just in case this Fett turned out to be the bounty hunter behind the shapeshifter who’d tried to kill her. Padmé bit the inside of her cheek, but nodded, and he gave her a small smile.

“I should head back to the ship, and send a report to the Council, and the Senate,” she said. The Kaminoans were entirely agreeable, and the prime minister had another of his assistants guide Padmé back to the door they’d entered from.

She hurried back through the rain into the ship, and put her wet cloak to dry over a rack in the ‘fresher, then tried to figure out how Sabé had her scramblers set on the communications array. R4 beeped and plugged into the computer to help, so by the time Obi-Wan arrived, dripping and frowning, they were ready for him.

“I need to send a message to the Council. I’m not sure we should send anything to the Senate just yet,” he said.

Padmé moved out of the pilot seat, and took his cloak to hang it up. “I don’t think we should either, but it got me out of the way, like you wanted.” His lips pursed, like he’d tasted something sour, but Padmé waved away any apologies or explanations. She continued: “It doesn’t matter. What did you find out?”

“You can listen while I tell the Council,” he said, and she did, mostly out of range of the hologram as he spoke to Masters Windu and Yoda. When the call ended, Obi-Wan breathed out harshly.

“You’re really going to go after Fett. All on your own, when he probably knows you’re coming.” Obi-Wan gave her a look, and Padmé shook her head. “This is ridiculous. I have a blaster, I’ll come with you.”

“Please don’t,” Obi-Wan said, and if he had phrased it any other way, Padmé would have ignored him. But he set a hand lightly on her shoulder and looked seriously into her eyes. “I know you want to help, and I know you can shoot, but this man is a professional, and I’d rather be able to face him without worrying he’ll try to use you against me.”

“I can take care of myself,” Padmé said. Obi-Wan stayed quiet, just looking at her calmly. “Fine, I’ll stay. Don’t get yourself killed.”

Obi-Wan smiled at her then, and rushed off after gathering his drenched cloak. Padmé listened to the rain and waited.

A message came through, text only. Sabé. _He finally found a clue. Heading to his place to meet the family._ So Anakin had figured out their deception, and they were going to-

“Tatooine,” Padmé said aloud. “Oh, Sabé must be thrilled.” Her decoy had not enjoyed their stay on the desert planet, but Sabé was too loyal to let Anakin go haring off on his own with one of Padmé’s ships. Padmé hoped they’d stay out of trouble.

Not long after that, Obi-Wan reappeared, soaked to the skin, but alone. “What happened?” There were bruises around his wrists. He typed a command into the computer, and a tracking program started.

“He got away, but I put a tracker on his ship. We need to follow him.”

Padmé strapped herself into the pilot’s seat and started liftoff procedures. “There’s a few spare guard uniforms in back,” she said. “Get into something dry, and I’ll start following him.”

*

Fett’s ship led them to Geonosis, a planet Padmé had heard of but never visited. He went through the asteroid field, dropping seismic charges, and Padmé didn’t object when Obi-Wan took over piloting: his reflexes were faster than hers, and for all the jokes he’d made about how the ship looked, she flew like a dream. Even so, he couldn’t evade everything, and they took a hit, destroying the long range communication array. 

Clearly getting tired of the game, Fett fired two torpedoes at them, so Padmé dumped some of the spare parts when Obi-Wan said to. They hid behind a larger asteroid while the explosion masked them from view, tracking as Fett’s ship went down to the surface after he’d convinced himself they were destroyed.

“I always end up in the strangest places when we travel together,” Padmé said while they waited, and Obi-Wan grinned at her.

“I was going to blame you, myself.”

“Ha,” Padmé said, and rested her chin on a hand. “I heard from Sabé. Anakin realized she wasn’t me and they went to Tatooine.”

Obi-Wan jerked in surprised. “I told him to stay on Naboo!”

Padmé gave him a look, and he settled, but he still looked annoyed. “Yes, I suppose if you weren’t there he was never going to stay. Why won’t that boy do as I tell him?”

“He’s a teenager,” Padmé said. “We don’t always do as we’re told, when we’re young like that.” She remembered a long ago argument with Panaka on Tatooine, which she’d finally won by reminding him though she was dressed as a handmaiden, she was still the Queen, and would be obeyed. He hadn’t wanted her to go with Qui-Gon, worried it would be too dangerous, but she’d gone just the same.

“I didn’t, remember,” she said.

Snorting, Obi-Wan shook his head. “I remember. At the time I had no idea why Panaka was in such a foul mood after you left.”

“He got over it,” Padmé said, and looked at the scanners. Nothing from the planet, nothing in space with them. “Think it’s been long enough?”

He nodded, and Padmé flew them down to the planet. They saw Trade Federation ships, and a lot of steam from the droid factories, and Obi-Wan frowned. “What are they doing here?”

Padmé put the ship on a ledge that was just barely wide enough for it, and changed into a jumpsuit that would blend more easily with the rocks around them. “Some kind of Separatists meeting, perhaps.” Seeing the Trade Federation ships had given her a clue, but it wasn’t until she and Obi-Wan made their way into the cave systems and overheard Dooku talking with Nute Gunray that she knew for sure.

“I want her head on my desk!” Nute exclaimed, and Padmé fingered her blaster. They were so close: one shot and then she would never have to deal with Gunray again. Obi-Wan touched her wrist and silently shook his head. They listened a while longer, and then snuck back out to the ship.

R4 had tried making repairs while they were gone, but some of the equipment he’d needed had been in the spare parts they’d used to decoy the torpedoes. “We’ll have to get Anakin to relay it to Coruscant,” Obi-Wan said. “We’re too far out of range here.”

Padmé listened with half an ear as he spoke to no one, then heard scraping from outside and caught a glimpse of something winged out the viewport. “Obi-Wan!” she said.

“Blast,” he muttered, and stepped out of hologram range. “Does this ship have somewhere you can hide and not be found?”

“Of course,” Padmé said. “Both of us, here.” She led the way to the hallway and pried up one of the grates covering the smuggling space. Obi-Wan helped her down into it. “You can fit, too.”

“It’ll cause less questions if they catch somebody on the ship,” Obi-Wan said, and shut her in. Padmé lay in the dark, furious and trying not to be scared, and heard firing, and a lightsaber, and a few screams. He had a point, though: as a Jedi, he might be captured and not killed right away, but with Nute Gunray here, if Padmé was caught, she would be killed at once.

When the fighting stopped, there were metallic footsteps all over the ship, and Padmé stayed quiet and tried not to breathe too much. If the searchers hadn’t been droids, she might have been caught, but droids didn’t notice things like two kinds of clothing in the ship. Eventually two of the stopped on the grate above her. “Nobody on board but the astromech,” said one.

“Roger, roger,” said the commander, and the droids marched off the ship. Padmé stayed in the hold and slept a little, then carefully made her way out, listening for signs she was detected the entire time. She grabbed a ration bar and some water and wolfed them down, then picked up all the blasters her outfit had room for, and went to go save Obi-Wan from his own nobility.

*

It was eerie, creeping down the silent stone hallways. Every sound Padmé made echoed, and she froze in place more times than she cared to count, certain each time that this was when she’d been heard and would be hunted down. But the catacombs were oddly empty and silent. Padmé frowned and kept moving.

She heard a noise and froze again, peering ahead of her. Then a hand covered her mouth and she was spun to face-

“Mmstr Fssto?” she said into his hand, and Kit Fisto grinned at her and removed his hand. “Master Fisto?” she said again, intelligibly this time. “What are you doing here?”

“Master Windu said Obi-Wan’s in trouble again,” Fisto said cheerfully, and nodded to her blasters, one held in each hand. “Are you here to help him, too?”

Padmé tucked one of the blasters away and nodded. “I just don’t know where to look.”

“Not to worry,” Fisto said, and led her the rest of the way to a huge outdoor arena. In the center of the space, Padmé could see four standing pillars. Obi-Wan was chained to one, and then Anakin, and on Anakin’s other side-

Sabé was using the chain that had been binding her to help her climb to the top. Padmé bit back a smile. Trust her best friend to be on top of the situation, even if the situation was facing death by very large alien animals. Kit Fisto peered over the wall and shook his head. “Some people just can’t stay out of danger,” he said softly. He seemed to be waiting for some kind of signal.

When it came, Padmé had two blasters ready, pointing them at anyone who seemed like they might be getting too close. Then all hell broke loose, and Fisto grabbed her arm to pull her closer. “Ready?” he said, and before Padmé could ask what she was supposed to be ready for, he jumped off the wall, taking her with him.

Padmé swallowed the scream that wanted to escape and concentrated on holding onto her blasters. They landed lightly on the sand floor of the arena, and Fisto released her to cut down a droid getting too close to them. Padmé shot another on reflex, then looked for Sabé. Her decoy was wearing white, which made her easy to find among all the shades of brown in the arena, and they met up swiftly, Padmé tossing her blasters to Sabé before pulling free two more. “I thought I told you to try to keep Anakin out of trouble,” she shouted over the noise.

Sabé pulled her down, and Padmé felt a bolt scorch over her head. “He doesn’t listen well,” she shouted back. “Reminds me a bit of you that way, to be honest,” Sabé continued, and shot two droids over Padmé’s shoulder. Padmé took aim and did the same over Sabé’s. “Besides, I came to rescue you. Jedi Kenobi is lucky he was already captured when we got here, I was going to give him hell for losing you.”

“He didn’t lose me,” Padmé said, and they reversed positions, standing back to back as they aimed, fired, and aimed again. “He made me hide so he could make some kind of heroic sacrifice.” All around them were sabers, blaster bolts, and droids, and there wasn’t any cover to speak of. Someone killed an animal dragging a cart, and both women ran to it, seeking what little cover it provided. A lightsaber hummed closer, and Padmé looked up to see Anakin standing over them, casually deflecting blaster bolts as though it were easy. He gave her a quick, hopeful smile, but it was hardly the time, and Padmé ignored him in favor of staying alive.

“Some people have no respect,” Sabé said, and yanked Padmé further into cover as a bolt passed entirely too close. There were fallen Jedi on the ground now, and the circle was compressing around them. Padmé saw Obi-Wan fighting nearby, and shot three droids away from him. Then the droidekas appeared, and everything went suddenly quiet.

In the silence, Padmé could hear Sabé cursing almost under her breath, and she put down a blaster to give Sabé’s arm a squeeze. Sabé gave her a tight little smile, and they listened as Dooku offered to spare their lives if they’d surrender. Padmé took a deep breath and got a fresh set of blaster packs, handing two of the four off to Sabé. She didn’t want to die here, on this dusty planet so far from home, but she wasn’t going down without a fight, either.

Then the clones came.

The tide turned, and Obi-Wan helped her into a ship. Anakin, a sulky look on his face, offered Sabé a hand up, and they flew off. When Obi-Wan spotted Dooku, they had a target, and Padmé clung to the handrail next to Sabé. They were going to make it, to stop him-

An explosion, and the ship jerked sideways. Padmé felt herself fall out of the open side of the ship, caught a glimpse of white armor- one of the clones, she thought- then a further glimpse of white- Sabé, you idiot, she thought, you should have stayed in the ship-

She hit the ground hard and tumbled over and over in the sand, the breath knocked out of her. Everything hurt. Padmé gave herself just a moment to rest, letting her eyes shut against the bright glare of the sun.

“Senator?” said a metallic voice, then Sabé was kneeling by her side, a clone trooper standing behind her.

“Are you broken?” she said, her brusque tone not hiding her worry. Padmé sat up, held in a wince, and let the two of them pull her to her feet.

“I’m fine.”

“We need to get to the command post,” the clone said, and Padmé shook her head.

“Dooku was heading somewhere, probably a hangar. That’s where we need to go. Can you get us a ship?”

The clone tilted his head, but nodded. “Right away!” he said, and hurried off. Padmé followed, Sabé at her side.

“Speaking of ships,” Sabé said, almost lightly, “if you’ve damaged mine I’m never going to forgive you.”

“Don’t worry,” Padmé said, trying to ignore a twinge in her back. She was pretty sure she’d cracked a rib in that fall, but she wasn’t going to let Sabé know that until she had to. “We only destroyed it most of the way.”

Sabé squawked in outrage, and Padmé grinned as they followed the clone to rejoin the fight.

For better or worse, the Clone Wars had begun.


End file.
